Snowboarding is a winter sport in which riders descend a snowy mountain slope while standing on a specially designed board secured to the rider's feet. The rider's feet are maintained on the board utilizing ski boots secured to special bindings attached to the board. Although modern snowboarding was first practiced in the mid-1960's, its popularity has increased tremendously over the last few years, rivaling snow skiing in the number of its participants.
In riding a snowboard down a slope, the rider's feet are retained in the bindings at an angle generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the board. When the rider is getting on and off chairlifts, or traverses flat areas of the slope, he routinely removes the rear foot from the binding, leaving the front foot attached. He then propels himself by pushing off of the snow with the back foot in the “skating mode”, in similar fashion to a skateboarder. While doing this, the front foot remains bound at a perpendicular angle to the rear foot and the rest of his body, thus exerting stress and increasing risk of injury to the front knee, as well as substantial loss of propulsion and control. This presents problems in two main areas of snowboarding: negotiating chairlifts and traversing flats.
While on the chairlift, the rider's hips, knees, and ankles experience added stress, as the board hangs from the front foot and the rider twists his body to ensure that the board hangs underneath and perpendicular to the chair, so as not to impede other riders on the same chair. As the rider embarks or disembarks from the chairlift, he twists his body and front leg so that the board is facing straight forward in the direction of travel of the chair, while keeping his body perpendicular in order to sit. With other riders (particularly a mix of goofy foot riders, i.e. riders with their right foot forward on the board, and regular footed riders, i.e. riders with their left foot forward on the board) and skiers on the same chair also trying to embark/disembark, congestion and the potential for falls is increased. Allowing the rider to remain facing forward while getting on, riding on, and getting off of the chairlift would materially reduce the risk of injury and increase comfort.
When a rider is required to traverse a flat area of the trail and lacks the momentum to complete it without stopping, he has a couple of options. The rider can remove his back foot and “skate” as previously described. Due to the position of the front foot relative to the rest of the body, skating is performed using relatively short strokes with attempts to glide by placing the back foot back onto the board just in front of the rear binding. As a result, propulsive power is rather limited. If the length of the flat terrain is too far or is sloped in such a way that skating takes the rider away from his intended direction of travel, the rider can remove both feet, pick up the board, and walk. Both options require the unnecessary expense of energy, are quite cumbersome and annoying.
Existing snowboard problems are available which attempt, albeit unsuccessfully, to address the problems described above. They all function in basically the same way. The rider must retrofit a rotating plate which is sandwiched between the front binding and the snowboard. By pulling a tether or other release mechanism, the binding is free to rotate forward, then locks in that forward position until released once again to rotate the binding back to the riding mode. There are a number of problems associated with this. A snowboard is controlled using its edges as it moves over the snow. The edges act on the snow by the rider shifting weight between his heel and toe, while feet are in the normal riding mode. Once the front foot is locked into the skating mode, all control of the board is lost. Another problem is that while skating, due to the lack of friction between the snow and bottom of the snowboard, the snowboard tends to drift away from the rider; unlike in skateboarding where the combination of friction and a fixed axis of rotation of the wheels forces the skateboard to move in a specific direction.